^ On
a 15 October:2006 Pope Benedict XVI [16
Apr 1927~] canonizes: _ Mother Anne-Thérèse
“Théodore Guérin” [02 Oct 1798 – 14
May 1856] who was born in France, where she entered the Sisters of Providence
of Ruillé-sur-Loir in 1823, which sent her to lead a group of nuns to found
the Sisters
of Providence of St Mary-of-the-Woods in the diocese of Vincennes in
Indiana (renamed Indianapolis on 28 March 1898), where she arrived with
other nuns in on 22 October 1840, at the request its French-born bishop
Célestin René Laurent Guynemer de la Hailandière [02 May 1798 – 01
May 1882]. She and her companions worked with poor pioneers and set up Catholic
schools in Indiana that are still active today.
_ Bishop Rafael Guizar Valencia [26 Apr 1878 – 06 Jun 1938] [portrait >].
Born into a well-to-do family in Mexico, he worked with the poor and struggled
against the policies of Mexican anti-clerical governments, establishing
schools for children. He was ordained a priest on 01 June 1901. On 03 June
1903 he founded the Congregation of Our Lady of Hope, which his brother
Antonio directed; but the anticlerical government suppressed the Congregation
on 21 June 1910. Towards the end of 1915 he took refuge from the persecution
of the Mexican Revolution, in the US, Guatemal, and Cuba. He was consecrated
a bishop on 30 November 1919, for the diocese of Veracruz, where he was
installed after the terrible earthquake of 09 January 1920. On 30 January
1921 he was the principal consecrator of his brother Antonio Guízar Valencia
[28 Dec 1879 – 04 Aug 1971], as bishop of Chihuahua (Antonio was later
made an archbishop). From 1926 to 1929 and again from1931 to 1937 the Mexican
persecution forced Rafael into exile; he was able to return in 1937. A diabetic,
he died of the consequences of a heart attack which he suffered in December
1937. _ Father Filippo Smaldone [27 Jul 1848 –
04 Jun 1923], Italian priest who opened institutes for the deaf-mute in
southern Italy and founded the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Today,
the order has some 400 members and also works in South America, Africa and
Moldova. _ Sister Rosa Venerini [09 Feb 1656 –
07 May 1728], Italian nun who started the first public schools for girls
in Italy. She founded an order of teaching nuns, now known as the Maestre
Pie Venerini, and opened about 50 schools before her death. Read
the
Pope's homily. —(061015)

2005 Referendum
in Iraq: for or against a new constitution. The result is not as overwhelming
as that of the referendum held 3 years earlier. The
constitution is approved, not because of the YES of 78% of the 9.8 million
who vote (63 % of the eligible), but because opponents (mostly belonging
to the Sunni minority) needed a 2/3 NO vote in at least three provinces,
but only got it in two (82% NO in Salaheddin and 97% in Anbar) , with two
other provinces voting NO by less than 2/3 (55% in Nineveh, 51% in Diyala).
— (051025)

2004 In Northampton, England
a court voids the death penalty to which Dino Lamont, now 7 years old, was
sentenced in July 2001 for allegedly having bitten in January 2001 the thumb
of a woman who intervened in a fight between Dino and her cross terrier.
Dino's family, Carole and Bryan Lamont and their daughters, has spent £60'000
on the intervening appeals; they had to sell their home. Dino, a friendly
German shepherd, has never, before or after the alleged incident, shown
any aggressivity towards anyone.

2002 Ivory
Coast government troops retake Daloa from the northern rebels who had captured
the city of 160'000 two days earlier.

2002
Referendum in Iraq: YES for beloved Saddam Hussein to have another 7 years
of dictatorship, or NO for the benighted voter to suffer the fate of the
0.04% who voted no on 15 October 1995 in the last such referendum.
With those renegades out of the way, this time 99.9999917% of the 12 million
voters enthusiastically choose yes, according to preliminary
reports. The final official results would be announced on 16 October: there
were 11'445'938 eligible voters, of which 11'445'938 cast their ballot,
and there were 11'445'938 Yes votes, 0 abstention, and 0 No
votes. What is not announced is that there was a 11'445'639th ballot, but
it was invalidated because the voter died a few minutes after casting it,
together with all the poll workers at that particular station. Not announced
either is that 62 citizens did not vote, thus demonstrating that they were
mentally ill and therefore not eligible voters; nor was it announced that
the survivors among them were admitted for long-term treatment in psychiatric
hospitals. Reporters covering the event ought to admit that freedom of speech
is greater in Iraq than in the US. It is true that, in the US, without getting
shot, you can stand in front of the President's mansion and yell that George
Dubya Bush is a fool and a criminal for wanting to invade Iraq,
but you run the risk of being hustled along by guards, or even arrested
for disordely conduct. In contrast, in Baghdad or anywhere else in Iraq
where Saddam Hussein has one of his multitudinous weapon caches.... er ....
presidential palaces, you can yell exactly the same and be praised for it.
2002 Human world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik [25 Jun 1975~],
with White, loses to computer program Deep Fritz, with Black, in the 6th
of the 8 games in their match of 04,
06,
08,
10,
13,
15,
17,
and 19
October 2002, evening the score 3 to 3. 
1. d4  Nf6 / 2. c4  e6 / 2. Nf3  b6 / 4. g3  Ba6
/ 5. b3  Bb4+ / 6. Bd2  Be7 / 7. Bg2  c6 / 8. Bc3 
d5 / 9. Ne5  Nfd7 / 10. Nxd7  Nxd7 / 11. Nd2  0-0 / 12.
0-0  Rc8 / 13. a4  Bf6 / 14. e4  c5 / 15. exd5 
cxd4 / 16. Bb4  Re8 / 17. Ne4  exd5 / 18. Nd6  dxc4 /
[the position here >] / 19.
Nxf7  Kxf7 / 20. Bd5+
 Kg6 / 21. Qg4+  Bg5 / 22. Be4+  Rxe4 / 23. Qxe4+ 
Kh6 / 24. h4  Bf6 / 25. Bd2+  g5 / 26. hxg5+  Bxg5 / 27.
Qh4+  Kg6 / 28. Qe4+  Kg7 / 29. Bxg5  Qxg5 / 30. Rfe1
 cxb3 / 31. Qxd4+  Nf6 / 32. a5  Qd5 / 33. Qxd5 
Nxd5 / 34. axb6  axb6 / White (Kramnik) resigns
/ A probable continuation: 35. Rxa6  b2 / 36. Ra7+
 Kg6 / 37. Rd7  Rc1 / 38. Rd6+  Nf6 / 39. Rdd1 
b1Q-+ 

2002
UK imposes its rule on Northern Ireland.^top^
At midnight (14 Oct 23:00 UT) Great Britain
imposes direct rule, replacing Northern Ireland's Protestant-Catholic power-sharing
administration and 108-member legislature, because Protestants have been
doing what they do best: protest, and the IRA has been doing what it does
best: arouse their ire.
After the decision was announced on 14 October,
the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern,
jointly said that they were "deeply saddened", but that British rule would
prevent complete collapse of the coalition resulting from the Good Friday
peace pact of 1998. They said that restoring Ulster Unionist-Sinn Fein relations
would require a clear-cut end to IRA activity
There is rising Protestant hostility to sharing
power with Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army-linked party that has grown
increasingly popular among Catholics, thanks to the peace process.
[photo: Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, 13 Oct 2002 >]
The major Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists,
had threatened to withdraw from power-sharing because of alleged IRA spying.
First Minister David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionists and the local
administration, had set 15 October as a deadline for Britain to to expel
Sinn Fein. As the UK takes power away from all four parties in the coalition,
Trimble said that he accepted this "a poor second best," and offered to
resume cooperation with Sinn Fein if the IRA disbanded.
Four persons, including Sinn Fein's top legislative
aide, are in jail awaiting trial for espionage-related charges following
04 October police raids. The prisoners are accused of stealing from Reid's
office documents that include details of potential IRA targets and records
of talks between Britain and other key parties.
It is hoped that Great Britain may be
able to return power to the Northern Ireland government before elections
to Northern Ireland's legislature in May.
John Reid, a Scotsman appointed by Prime
Minister Tony Blair in 2000, will oversee Northern Ireland's 12 government
departments with help from four lawmakers from London. Reid said that he
planned to consult regularly the powerless administration's top two men
 Trimble and the Catholic deputy leader, Social Democratic and Labor
Party chief Mark Durkan.
This suspension of powers was the fourth
ordered by Britain since Trimble's coalition took office in December 1999,
following a US-brokered compromise. Under that plan, Sinn Fein received
two administration posts on condition that the IRA began to disarm. Great
Britain resumed sole control in February 2000, after disarmament officials
confirmed that the IRA had yet to get rid of any weapons. Three months later,
Britain switched power back to local hands after the IRA pledged to put
its stockpiled weaponry "beyond use." When no disarmament followed, however,
Trimble resigned as government leader in July 2001, and vowed not to return
until the IRA moved. Britain used two short suspensions of power to extend
the deadline for Trimble's re-election until the IRA secretly scrapped a
few arms dumps in October 2001. But the belated IRA move did little to ease
opposition to Trimble in the legislature, where Protestant hard-liners came
within a few votes of blocking his return to power.
Protestant hostility to Sinn Fein has swelled
un 2002, with police allegations against The IRA is largely observing a
1997 cease-fire but remains active in the most hard-line Catholic areas.
The police alleges, and the IRA denies, that the outlawed IRA stole police
documents detailing its informer network; keeps gathering intelligence and
training for a potential end to its cease-fire; kills drug dealers, and
wounds criminal rivals in its Catholic power bases; and directs mob attacks
on police. The Protestants must feel that siding with drug dealers and criminals
will gain them popular support.

2001 The marking on a package received from the US by
a retiree in Chemnitz, Germany, causes him to call the police, who call
experts in chemical and biological hazards. As they examine the package
cautiously, it dawns on them that the offending word is not the German word
meaning poison: GIFT, but is in English.2000 Maruja
Torres Manzanera recibe el premio Planeta de novela por su obra Mientras
vivimos.1999 Chechnya says that it shot down
a third Russian warplane (CNN)1999 The US Department of State submits its Initial
Report of the USA to the UN Committee Against Torture. In October
1994 the US ratified the Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman,
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. On November 20, 1994 the Convention
entered into force for the US. The present report covers the situation in
the US through September 1999.

^1998 .tv domain names for sale
Newspapers reported that the Toronto
company TV Corp. would begin selling licenses for domain names ending
in ".tv. The domain name belonged to a tiny country called Tuvalo,
which struck a deal with TV Corp. officials to license domain names
ending in ".tv" to broadcasting companies, enabling them to create
sites with addresses like "abc.tv. Tuvalo, a group of nine atolls
in the South Pacific, boasted a population of about ten thousand.
Reserving a ".tv" name cost $1000, plus a $500-per-year registration
fee.

^
1991 Thomas confirmed to the US Supreme Court
After a series of bitter confirmation
hearings, Clarence Thomas [23 Jun 1948~], the second Black to be appointed
to the US Supreme Court, is confirmed by a narrow vote of fifty-two
to forty-eight in the Senate. In addition to the liberal opposition
to his extreme conservatism, Thomas was accused of sexual harassment
during the televised hearings by Anita Hill, a professor of law and
former associate of Thomas. Although Hill, whose testimony was savagely
attacked by several senators, was unable to produce any definitive
evidence against Thomas, the episode served to foster a greater public
awareness of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace.

^
1990 Apple replaces most of Mac line
Apple Computer replaced most of the Macintosh line with new, lower
cost computers. In an effort to boost Apple's dwindling market shares,
the more powerful new machines were priced between 33% and 50% lower
than their predecessors. The new line, however, came too late to affect
Apple's diminishing market share. Although the computer maker virtually
founded the personal computer industry, its market share had declined
dramatically and would continue to do so. By 1998, Apple held only
3.8% of the personal computer market.

1989 South African president F. W. de Klerk frees Sisulu
and four other political prisoners.

^1969 Vietnam: National
Moratorium demonstrations held across the US
National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations
are conducted across the United States involving hundreds of thousands
of people. The National Moratorium was an effort by David Hawk and
Sam Brown, two antiwar activists, to forge a broad-based movement
against the Vietnam War. The organization initially focused its effort
on 300 college campuses, but the idea soon grew and spread beyond
the colleges and universities. Hawk and Brown were assisted by the
New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which was instrumental
in organizing the nation-wide protest. One of the largest demonstrations
occurred when 100,000 people converged on the Boston Common, but demonstrations
nationwide also included smaller rallies, marches, and prayer vigils.
The demonstrations involved a broad spectrum of the population, including
those who had already participated in antiwar demonstrations and many
who had never before raised their voices against the war. The protest,
as a nationally coordinated antiwar demonstration, was considered
unprecedented; Walter Cronkite called it "historic in its scope. Never
before had so many demonstrated their hope for peace.

^1966 Vietnam: Operation
Attleboro continues in Tay Ninh Province
US troops move into Tay Ninh Province near the Cambodian border, about
50 miles north of Saigon, and sweep the area in search of Viet Cong
as part of Operation Attleboro, which had begun in September. The
purpose of this operation was to find and eliminate all enemy troops
west of the Michelin rubber plantation. It was the largest US operation
to date and included elements of the US 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions;
the 196th Light Infantry Brigade; the 173rd Airborne Brigade; and
at least two South Vietnamese army battalions. Engagements continued
through the middle of November. At the height of the fighting, a record
20,000 Allied troops were committed. They were opposed by major elements
of the 9th Viet Cong Division, one of the best-trained Communist formations.
Communist resistance was strong because the Tay Ninh area contained
the site of the principal Viet Cong command center for guerrilla operations
in South Vietnam and the central office of the National Liberation
Front. Operation Attleboro ended on November 25. By then, 2130 Viet
Cong and North Vietnamese troops had been killed.

^1966 The worst driver in US history
In McKinney, Texas, a seventy-five-year-old
male driver receives ten traffic tickets, drives on the wrong side
of the road four times, commits four hit-and-run offenses, and causes
six accidents, all within twenty minutes. It is ironic that the record
worst driver is a native Texan, because Texans, especially residents
of Houston, are consistently ranked as the best drivers in the nation.
On another record-breaking bad driver
note, Mrs. Fannie Turner of Little Rock, Arkansas, finally overcame
her driving demons this month in 1978 when she finally passed the
written test for drivers -- it was her 104th attempt.

1965 Vietnam:
First draft card burned
In a demonstration staged by the student-run National Coordinating
Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the first public burning of a
draft card in the United States takes place. These demonstrations
drew 100'000 people in 40 cities across the country. In New York,
David Miller, a young Catholic pacifist, became the first US war protestor
to burn his draft card in direct violation of a recently passed law
forbidding such acts. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
later arrested him; he was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to two
years imprisonment.

^1883 US Supreme Court opposes civil rights
By a narrow decision, the US Supreme
Court strikes down a significant part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875,
which forbade racial discrimination and segregation in public places.
The Court holds that only state-imposed discrimination is unlawful,
not discrimination by individuals or corporations. It would be nearly
a hundred years before the high court ruled in Brown v. Board
of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in public educational
facilities is unconstitutional. Ten years after that, the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 finally bars racial discrimination in all types of public
accommodations, from schools to restaurants to passenger train cars.

1878 Edison Electric Light Company incorporated 1877 45th US Congress (1877-79) convenes
1860 Grace Bedell [04 November 1848  02 November 1936],
of Westfield NY, writes a
letter of support to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, including:
if you let your whiskers grow ... you would look a great deal better
for your face is so thin. Lincoln would answer on 19 October 1860,
ending with: As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not
think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin
it now?. However, when Lincoln's train to Washington stopped in Westfiers
on 16 February 1861 and he kissed Grace Bedell, he had his now-well-known
beard. 1846 Dr. William Thomas Green Morton makes
first public use of ether anesthesia.1862 Skirmish
at Neely's Bend on the Cumberland River in Tennessee 1821
Las Cortes españolas deciden crear la provincia de Logroño.

^1815 Napoléon begins exile on St. Helena
Four months after suffering a final
defeat against an allied force under the Duke of Wellington, Napoléon
Bonaparte lands on the remote island of St. Helena in the Atlantic
Ocean, where he spends the rest of his life in exile. The Corsica-born
Napoléon, one of the greatest military strategists in history,
rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during
the late 1790s. By 1799, France was at war with most of Europe, and
Napoléon returned home from his Egyptian campaign to take over
the reigns of French government and to save his nation from collapse.
After becoming first consul in February
of 1800, he reorganized his armies and defeated Austria. In 1802,
he established the Napoléonic Code, a new system of French
law, and in 1804, was crowned emperor of France in Notre Dame Cathedral.
By 1807, he controlled an empire that stretched from the River Elbe
in the north down through Italy in the south, and from the Pyrenees
to the Dalmation coast. Beginning in 1812, Napoléon began to
encounter the first significant defeats of his military career, suffering
through a disastrous invasion of Russia, losing Spain to the Duke
of Wellington in the Peninsula War, and enduring total defeat against
an allied force by 1814. Exiled
to the island of Elba, he escaped to France in early 1815, and raised
a new Grand Army that enjoyed temporary success before its crushing
defeat at Waterloo against an allied force under Wellington on June
18, 1815. Napoléon was subsequently exiled to the island of
Saint Helena off the coast of Africa. Six years later, on May 5, 1821,
he died, most likely of stomach cancer, and in 1840, his body was
returned to Paris, where it was interred in the Hotel des Invalides.

1790 Ann Teresa Mathews (Mother Bernardina) and Frances
Dickinson found a convent of Discalced Carmelites (a contemplative working
order) in Port Tobacco, Maryland. It is the first Catholic convent founded
in the United States. 1783 Jean-François
Pilâtre de Rozier makes the first manned flight in a hot air balloon.
The first flight reaches 25 m, but over the next few days the altitude would
increased up to 2000 m. He made the balloon flight generally considered
as first on 21 November 1783.1722 Juan de Acuña
y Bejarano sustituye como virrey de Nueva España a Baltasar de Zúñiga. 1641 Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve claims Montreal

2005 Pamela
Jeanne Vitale[11 Jan 1953–], beaten on the head with a rock
by her neighbor Scott
Dyleski [30 Oct 1988~], in her home in Lafayette, California, while
her husband, defense attorney Daniel
Horowitz [14 Dec 1954~] , was out. On 26 September 2006, Dyleski was
sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. —(061113)

2004 Ten civilians and a suicide car bomber near a
police station in Baghdad, Iraq. 14 persons are wounded.

2003 John Branchizio, 36;
Mark T. Parson, 31; and John Martin Linde Jr., 30; US security
guards in armored van torn in half and overtuned by a remote-controlled
roadside bomb at 10:15 (07:15 UT) near Beit Hanoun, in the Gaza Strip, a
couple of kilometers south of the Erez border checkpoint. One US security
guard is wounded. The vehicle was the third in a convoy of four vehicles
escorting US diplomats on their way to Gaza City to interview applicants
for Fulbright scholarships. The security guards were employees of DynCorp,
a Virginia-based security firm contracted by the US embassy in Israel. —
[the van being examined >]. — A few hours later US
investigators have to retreat when pelted by stones by a dozen youths in
a crowd of some 200 Palestinians chanting “Allahu akbar”.

2003 A militant of the Popular Front from the Liberation
of Palestine, shot by Israeli soldiers at roadblock at Enbata near Tul Karm,
West Bank, when he tries to escape.

2003 The driver of
concrete-mixer, after it overturns near West Bank enclave settlement
Shavei Shomron.

2003 George Matar, 57, Christian
Arab Israeli, injured in the 04 October
2003 suicide bombing of Maxim's Restaurant (of one of whose owners he
was a relative), becomes the 21st killed by it.

2003 Moktar
Ould Daddah, born in 1924, ruler of Mauritania from its 28 November
1960 independence (from France) to his 1978 overthrow by a military junta
which jailed him for 15 months after which he went into exile in Tunisia
and France.

2003 Benny Levy, of a heart attack,
French Jewish philosopher and author. He was born in Cairo on 28 August
1945, was prominent Marxist-Leninist rebel student “Pierre Victor”
in 1968, but later turned to Jewish piety and moved to Israel.

2002
Carla Bergamin, 40, her widowed mother Teresa Bergamin, brother Sergio Bergamin
and his wife Margherita Bergamin, retired neighbors Decio Renato Guerra
and wife Laura Guerra, one other man, and Mauro Antonello, 40,
Carla's ex-husband (they separated in 2000), a night watchman, who at 08:45,
with some 40 shots from four legal guns from his collection, kills the seven
and then himself, in via Parini 5 and 3 [photo >], Chieri,
20 km south-east of Turin, Italy. Carla's and Mauro's daughter, 7, has left
on the school bus a few minutes earlier to go to Borgo Venezia Elementary
(the bus driver Antonio Lancellotti had instructions from Carla never to
let Mauro take the girl off the bus). The neighborhood is known as Borgo
Venezia, all the victims are of Venetian origin.  La prima ad essere
caduta è stata la ex moglie. Agli spari accorrono i coniugi Guerra che vengono
a loro volta uccisi. Mauro Antonello salta poi la recinzione che separa
il numero civico 5 dal numero 3 ed entra in un' officina laboratorio dei
Bergamin, specializzata in lavorazioni tessili. Lì ammazza due donne, una
è Margherita Bergamin, la moglie di Sergio, l'altra la persona di cui non
si conoscono ancora le generalità. Poi, nel giardino fra le due case, incontra
Sergio e Teresa Bergamin e li uccide. Infine sale in mansarda, si siede
sul divano, si punta il revolver alla tempia e fa fuoco togliendosi la vita.
Daniele e Andrea Bergamin, di 18 e 20 anni, figli di Sergio e Margherita,
si sono salvati perchè sono usciti di casa pochi prima della strage: Daniele
per andare a Castelnuovo Don Bosco (paese a pochi chilometri da Chieri),
dove frequenta un istituto tecnico, Andrea per un corso di informatica.
2002 Condor, 5-months old, seen dead in a cave in
the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, in the Los Padres National Forest, Calfornia.
Its mother was found to have high levels of lead, which may have been passed
on to the egg. It was among the first condor chicks hatched in the wild
in nearly two decades; the
first one was found dead on 04 October 2002. Captive breeding has incresed
the number of California condors in the world from 22 (in 1982) to 205 (as
of 01 September 2002), 73 of them in the wild in California and Arizona.
2001 Ahmed Marshoud, Hamas militant, by explosion
in a car parked outside a Nablus office in view of an Israeli position on
a nearby hilltop. 1999 David Saenz, 57, shot in
the head by Ramon Cabrera, 48, because Saenz did not know the tune of El
Guajolote which Cabrera had asked him to play, as Saenz was entertaining
neighbors with his guitar and accordion in his yard, in Corpus Christi.
On 09 March 2001, Cabrera would be sentenced to 99 years in prison, with
possible parole after 30 years. 1990 Magnus,
mathematician 1987 Thomas Sankara,. presidente de
Burkina Faso, en un golpe de Estado dado por Blaise Compaoré.1983
Five snipers at Beirut International Airport, shot by US Marine
sharpshooters 1981 Rafael Dieste, escritor español. 1965 Fraenkel,
mathematician 1964 Cole Porter composer1959
Fejér,
mathematician

^1946 Herman Goering, suicide by
poison, on the eve of his scheduled hanging.
Herman Goering, commander in chief
of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo,
prime minister of Prussia, chief forester of the Reich, chief liquidator
of sequestered estates, supreme head of the National Weather Bureau,
and Hitler's designated successor dies by his own hand. Goering was
an early member of the Nazi Party and was wounded in the failed Munich
Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. That wound would have long-term effects,
as Goering became increasingly addicted to painkillers.
Not long after Hitler's accession to power, Goering was instrumental
in creating concentration camps for political enemies. Ostentatious
and self-indulgent, he changed his uniform five times a day and was
notorious for flaunting his decorations, jewelry, and stolen artwork.
It was Goering who ordered the purging of German Jews from the economy
following the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, initiating an "Aryanization"
policy that confiscated Jewish property and businesses. Goering's
failure to win the Battle of Britain and prevent the Allied bombing
of Germany led to his loss of stature within the Party, aggravated
by the low esteem with which he was always held by fellow officers
because of his egocentrism and position as Hitler's right-hand man.
As the war progressed, he dropped into depressions and continued to
battle drug addiction. When Goering fell into US hands after Germany's
surrender, he had in his possession a rich stash of paracodin pills,
a morphine derivative. He was
charged with various crimes against humanity and tried by the International
War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg. Despite a vigorous attempt at self-acquittal,
he was found guilty and, along with ten other high-ranking Nazi officials,
sentenced to be hanged, but before he could be executed, he committed
suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.

^1945 Pierre Laval.
The puppet prime minister of Nazi-occupied Vichy France, is executed
by a firing squad for treason against France. Laval, originally a
deputy and senator of pacifist tendencies, shifted to the right in
the 1930s while serving as the French premier and minister of foreign
affairs. A staunch anti-Communist, Laval delayed the Soviet-Franco
pact of 1935 and sought to align France with Fascist Italy. Hostile
to the declaration of war against Germany in 1939, Laval encouraged
the antiwar faction in the French government, and with the German
invasion in 1940 used his political influence to force an armistice
with Germany. Laval offered the new Vichy state to Phillipe Pétain,
and as Pétain's deputy encouraged the Vichy government in full
collaboration with the Nazi programs of oppression and genocide.
By 1942, Laval had won the trust of
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and the elderly Pétain became merely
a figurehead in the Vichy regime. After the Allied liberation of France,
Laval fled to German protection to the east. With the defeat of Germany
in May of 1945, he escaped to Spain, but was expelled and went into
hiding in Austria, where he finally surrendered to US authorities
on 31 July. Extradited to France, Laval was convicted of treason by
the High Court of Justice in a sensational trial. Condemned to death,
he attempted suicide by poison, but was nursed back to health in time
for his execution.

^1917 Margaretha Geertruida Zelle Macleod "Mata Hari"
executed by firing squad
Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, is executed
for espionage by a French firing squad at the Vincennes barracks outside
of Paris. Mata Hari first came to Paris in 1905, and found fame as
a performer of exotic Indian-inspired dances in the Parisian salons.
Mata Hari soon began touring all over Europe, telling the story of
how she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient Indian
dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari, meaning "eye
of the dawn. In reality,
Mata Hari was born in a small town in northern Holland, and her real
name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle Macleod. However, regardless
of the authenticity of her eastern origins, Mata Hari packed dance
halls from Russia to America, largely due to her willingness to dance
almost entirely naked in public. Mata Hari was also a famous courtesan
in European society, and with the outbreak of World War I her catalogue
of lovers began to include high-ranking French officers. .
In February 1917, French authorities arrested Mata Hari for espionage
and imprisoned her at St. Lazare Prison in Paris. In a military trial
conducted in July, she was accused of revealing details of the Allies'
new weapon, the tank, resulting in the deaths of thousands of soldiers.
She was convicted and sentenced to death, and on October 15 she refused
a blindfold and was shot to death by a firing squad at Vincennes.
There is some evidence that
Mata Hari acted as a German spy, and for a time as a double agent
for the French, but the Germans had written her off as an ineffective
agent whose pillow talk had produced little intelligence of value.
Her military trial was riddled with bias and circumstantial evidence,
and it is probable that French authorities trumped her up as "the
greatest woman spy of the century" as a distraction for the huge losses
the French army was suffering on the western front. Her only real
crimes may have been an elaborate stage fallacy and a weakness for
men in uniform.
Elle inspira écrivains et cinéastes pour devenir l’espionne la plus
célèbre du centenaire. Mata Hari, de son vrai nom Margaretha Geertruida
Zelle, est une séduisante Hollandaise initiée aux danses orientales
en Indonésie aux côtés de son mari, officier de la coloniale néerlandaise,
et qui a défrayé la chronique entre 1914 et 1917 en espionnant les
puissances de l’Entente au profit de l’Allemagne. Dans sa villa du
bois de Boulogne, dans la région parisienne, elle charme les officiers
français et anglais, obtient habilement des secrets militaires de
leur part et, durant trois années, les transmettait en Allemagne.
Elle n’est démasquée qu’en 1917 quand les services secrets français
la surprennent à Lisbonne avec un officier allemand. Traduite devant
un tribunal militaire à Paris, elle est convaincue d’espionnage et
fusillée le 15 octobre 1917. Elle n’a pas cessé de clamer son innocence.
La belle Greta Garbo l’immortalisa au cinéma où son histoire fut adaptée
en 1932 dans un film du réalisateur Fietzmaurice, en campant magistralement
son personnage.

1892 Four members of Dalton gang. An attempt to rob two
banks in Coffeyville, Kan., ends in disaster for the Dalton gang as four
of the five outlaws are killed and Emmet Dalton is seriously wounded.

^1880 Victorio, great Chiricahua Apache warrior, and
over 100 of his braves.
The warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists
of all time, dies in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso,
Texas. Born in New Mexico around 1809, Victorio grew up during a period
of intense hostility between the native Minbreño Apache Indians
of the southwest and encroaching Mexican and American settlers. Determined
to resist the loss of his homeland, Victorio began leading his small
band of warriors on a long series of devastating raids against Mexican
and American settlers and their communities in the 1850s. After more
than a decade of evading the best efforts of the Mexican and American
armies to capture him, the US Army managed to convince Victorio to
accept resettlement of his people on an inhospitable patch of sunburnt
land near San Carlos, Arizona, in 1869.
But with summer temperatures reaching above 40ºC on the San Carlos
reservation (an area also known as Hell's Forty Acres) and farming
nearly impossible, Victorio decided the new reservation was unacceptable
and moved his followers to more pleasant grounds at Ojo Caliente (Warm
Springs), thus again becoming an outlaw in the eyes of the United
States. In 1878, the US Army attempted to force the Apaches back to
the San Carlos reservation, but Victorio eluded capture, disappearing
into the desert with 150 braves. Surviving by raiding the towns and
farms of Chihuahua, Mexico, Victorio and his men began to take bloody
revenge against their enemies, ambushing US troops with devastating
effect and killing any Mexican or American sheepherder unfortunate
enough to cross their path.
In 1880, a combined force of US and Mexican troops finally succeeded
in tracking down the wily Apache and his warriors, surrounding them
in the Tres Castillos Mountains of Mexico, just south of El Paso,
Texas. Having sent the American troops away, the Mexican soldiers
proceeded to kill all but 17 of the trapped Apaches, though the exact
manner of Victorio's death remains unclear. Some claimed an Indian
scout employed by the Mexican army killed the famous warrior. But
according to the Apache, Victorio took his own life rather than surrender
to the hated Mexicans. Regardless of how it happened, Victorio's death
made him a martyr to the Apache people and strengthened the resolve
of other warriors to continue the fight. The last of the great Apache
warriors, Geronimo, would not surrender until 1886.

1875 Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Theodor Hosemann, German
genre painter and lithographer born on 24 September 1807. — more
with links to two images.

^1863 Horace Lawson Hunley and 7 of crew of his sub,
which sinks during tests. For
the second time, , the first successful submarine, the Confederate
submarine H L Hunley sinks during a practice dive in Charleston
Harbor, this time drowning its inventor along with seven crew members
Horace Lawson Hunley developed
the submarine from a cylinder boiler. It was operated by a crew of
eight--one person steered while the other seven turned a crank that
drove the ship's propeller. The Hunley could dive, but it required
calm seas for safe operations. It was tested successfully in Alabama's
Mobile Bay in the summer of 1863, and Confederate commander General
Pierre G.T. Beauregard recognized that the vessel might be useful
to ram Union ships and break the blockade of Charleston Harbor. The
Hunley was placed on a railcar and shipped to South Carolina. The
submarine experienced problems upon its arrival. During a test run,
a crewmember became tangled in part of the craft's machinery and the
craft dove with its hatch open; only two men survived the accident.
The ship was raised and repaired, but it was difficult to find another
crew that was willing to assume the risk of operating the submarine.
Its inventor and namesake stepped forward to restore confidence in
his creation. On October 15, he took the submarine into Charleston
Harbor for another test. In front of a crowd of spectators, the Hunley
slipped below the surface and did not reappear. Horace Hunley and
his entire crew perished. Surprisingly, another willing crew was assembled
and the Hunley went back into the water. On February 17, 1864, the
ship headed out of Charleston Harbor and approached the USS. Housatanic.
The Hunley stuck a torpedo into the Yankee ship and then backed away
before the explosion. The Housatanic sank in shallow water, and the
Hunley became the first submarine to sink a ship in battle. Unfortunately,
its first successful mission was also its last--the Hunley sank before
it returned to Charleston, taking yet another crew down with it. The
vessel was raised on August 8, 2000, and will now reside in an exhibit
at the Charleston History Museum.

1841 Diego de León, general fusilado en Madrid por su frustrado
asalto al Palacio Real. 1829 Georges Dawe, English
portrait
painter and writer born on 08 February 1781.  MORE
ON DAWE AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1813 Tecumseh. During the land
defeat of the British on the Thames River in Canada, the Indian chief Tecumseh,
now a brigadier general with the British Army (War of 1812).1811
Sir Nathaniel Dance~Holland, English painter and politician, born
on 18 May 1735 (1734?).  MORE
ON DANCE~HOLLAND AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1719 Jan Mortel, Dutch artist
born in 1650.  1690 Adam Frans van der Meulen,
Flemish painter, draftsman, and tapestry designer, active also in France,
baptized as an infant on 11 January 1632.  MORE
ON VAN DER MEULEN AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1690 Juan de Valdés Leal (Juan
de Nisa), Spanish painter and engraver born on 04 May 1622. 
MORE
ON VALDÉS AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images. 1676 Simon de Vos, Flemish
artist born on 28 October 1603. — more
with links to two images. 1655 Jews of Lublin, massacred.1648 Simone Cantarini da Pesaro, Italian painter
and engraver baptized as an infant on 21 August 1612 (born in April 1612?).—
more with links to
images. 1609 Joseph Heintz (or Heinz) Jr., Swiss
painter born on 15 June 1564.  MORE
ON HEINTZ AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1564 Andreas Vesalius, 49,
anatomist 1389 Urbano VI, Papa.

1997 Sidewalk, online entertainment guide
Microsoft Sidewalk, a series of local
online entertainment guides, showcasing food, theater, fashion, and
music, debuts in Denver and Houston on this day in 1997. Seattle,
the first Sidewalk site, launched in April and New York Sidewalk followed
soon thereafter. By 1998, Microsoft had implemented its Sidewalk effort
in nine cities. However, in late 1998, the company redesigned the
struggling Sidewalk to focus on Internet shopping, and the service
became more like an Internet yellow-pages directory than a local entertainment
guide.

1992 La XXI edición del Diccionario de la Real Academia Española
de la Lengua, que incorpora cinco mil nuevas voces, es presentada
en Madrid.1966 The US Department of Transportation
is created by a bill which President Lyndon B. Johnson [27 August 1908 –
22 Jan 1973] signs.1945 Antonio
Cañizares Llovera, Spaniard who would earn a doctorate in theology
at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, and, on 21 June 1970, would be
ordained a priest of the diocese of Valencia. He would teach theology of
the Word and fundamental theology. On 25 April 1992 he would be consecrated
a bishop, to head the diocese of Avila. On 10 December 1996 he would be
appointed archbishop of Granada, and, on 24 October 2002, archbishop of
Toledo. He would be made a cardinal on 24 March 2006, and would serve in
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission
Ecclesia Dei. On 09 December 2008 he would be appointed Prefect of the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. —(081211)1951 I Love Lucy premieres on CBS-TV, starring
the couple (married 30 Nov 1940, divorced 1960) Lucille Ball [06 Aug 1911
– 26 Apr 1989] and Desi Arnaz [02 Mar 1917 – 02 Dec 1986]. During
the six years that fresh episodes were produced, the archetypal sitcom remained
at or near the top of the TV ratings. 1939 New York Municipal
Airport is dedicated. Its name would be later changed to La Guardia
Airport. 1938 Vidas Secas de Graciliano
Ramos se publica.1937 To Have and Have Not,
novel by Ernest Hemingway, is published 1930 La rosa
de los vientos de Juana de Ibarbourou se publica. 1927
Günter Grass escritor alemán.1926 Agustín García
Calvo, filósofo y filólogo español 1926 Michel Foucault,
pensador francés. 1926 Evan Hunter [Ed McBain],
US writer (Blackboard Jungle) 1924 Lido "Lee"
A. Iacocca, mechanical engineer, automobile executive: CEO of Chrysler
Corporation, then president of Ford Motor Company.1923 Italo
Calvino, Italian novelist.

^1920 Mario
Puzo, in "Hell's Kitchen" on Manhattan's (NY)
West Side Following military
service in World War II, he attended New York's New School for Social
Research and Columbia University. His best-known novel, The Godfather,
was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels, The Dark Arena
and The Fortunate Pilgrim. In 1978, he published Fools
Die, followed by The Sicilian (1984) and The Fourth
K (1991). He also wrote: , The Cotton Club, and
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
Mario Puzo has also written several screenplays, including Earthquake,
Superman, and all three Godfather movies, for which
he received two Academy Awards. Mario's latest novel, 1996's The
Last Don, was made into a CBS television miniseries in May 1997,
starring Danny Aiello, Kirsty Ally and Joe Montegna. In 1997, Part
II was aired. Mario died July
2, 1999, at his home in Bay Shore, Long Island. His last novel, Omerta,
was released a year later. He was survived by his companion of 20
years Carol Gino and five children.

1917 Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger “Arthur
Meier Schlesinger Jr.”, US historian (1946 Pulitzer--Age
of Jackson) who died on 28 February 2007. His father was social historian
Arthur
Meier Schlesinger “Sr.” [27 Feb 1888 – 30 Oct 1965].
Schlesinger Jr. may or may not have been related, through his Bancroft mother,
to the US's first great historian George
Bancroft [03 Oct 1800 – 17 Jan 1891]. —(070205)1915
Isaac Shamir, político israelí. 1914 Labor's "Charter
of Freedom". The US House of Representatives approves "labor's
charter of freedom"--the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which sanctioned unions,
removing them from the jurisdiction of anti-trust laws. No longer viewed
as barriers to trade, unions are free to strike, boycott, and picket about
their complaints with management.1910 Torbjorn Oskar Caspersson,
Swedish cytologist and geneticist. 1909 Bernhard
Neumann, mathematician 1908 John Kenneth Galbraith,
a strong proponent of Keynesian economics. In The Affluent Society,
Galbraith laid out his economic philosophy, including the belief that increased
production and a large GNP would provide the cure for various social ills.
During his career, Galbraith also served in John Kennedy's administration,
doling out fiscal wisdom, as well as serving as ambassador to India. He
received the 1958 Hillman Award. 1907 John Cardinal Dearden
US cardinal (1969-88) 1907 La patria chica,
de los hermanos Serafín y Joaquín Álvarez Quintero, se estrena
en el teatro de la Zarzuela. 1905 Charles Percy Snow
England, novelist/scientist (Death Under Sail) 1901 Enrique
Jardiel Poncela, escritor humorista español. 1896
Celestin Freinet, pedagogo francés. 1890 Jakob
Nielsen, mathematician.1888 S. S. VanDine,
US critic, editor, and author of popular detective novels, who died on 11
April 1939.

^1881 Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, comic
novelist, creator of Jeeves the butler, in Surrey,
England. P. G. Wodehouse attended
Dulwich College in London, then went to work as a humor columnist
for the London Globe. He also worked as a freelance writer. After
1909, he spent extended periods of time in the United States and in
France. He wrote numerous stories, and in 1915 published Extricating
Young Gussie, the first story featuring kindhearted but dim Bertie
Wooster and his "gentleman's gentleman," Jeeves.
In numerous stories and novels, Jeeves condescends to extract Bertie
from countless mishaps. The first collection of Jeeves stories, My
Man Jeeves, was published in 1919, followed by The Inimitable
Jeeves (1923) and Very Good, Jeeves (1930). A novel,
Thank You, Jeeves, came out in 1934, followed by another,
The Code of the Woosters (1938).
In 1940, Wodehouse was living in France when the Germans invaded.
He was arrested and spent most of the war imprisoned in Berlin. In
1941, he made five radio broadcasts to the United States, comically
describing his dilemma as a prisoner. Because he used enemy radio
equipment for his broadcasts, Wodehouse was unwelcome in Britain after
the war. He moved to the United States, where he worked on plays and
musicals with various musicians including George Gershwin. He also
worked on screenplays. Wodehouse was knighted in 1975 and died on
14 February 1975. All told, he wrote more than 300 stories, 90 books,
30 plays or musicals, and 20 film scripts.
WODEHOUSE ONLINE: A
Damsel in Distress , Piccadilly
Jim, Psmith,
Journalist, Something
New

1877 Ricardo León y Román, novelista español.

^1878 Edison Electric Company
It is funded in part by wealthy investors
like J.P. Morgan, who thought Edison, the inventor of the telegraph,
was a wise investment. Though electric light had eluded inventors
for over fifty years, Thomas A. Edison had vowed that he would create
the first incandescent lamp. He quickly made good on his promise.
His company was soon flush with profits, and competitors hoping to
cash in on the burgeoning market were springing up everywhere. Under
the tutelage of Morgan, Edison adopted the aggressive tactics of vertical
integration, buying his rivals and transforming his company into a
model modern enterprise. Without anti-trust laws to put the breaks
on the feeding frenzy, Edison's shop, re-christened the General Electric
Company, dominated the field with just one major competitor, the Westinghouse
Company.

Thoughts for the day:
"He walks as if balancing the family tree on his nose.
{big, strong nose?}{Who's he? Cyrano, no?  Cyrano's nose knows.}He doesn't have a family tree. He has a family weed.
{it's easier on the nose, unless you're allergic.}
My dog thinks of your family tree as a substitute for a fire hydrant.
Time heals all wounds.
Wine seals all tombs.
Heels time all wounds.
Time wounds all heels.
Everyone knows that everyone's nose is wounded by balancing a tree on it.
Don't balance the family tree on your nose. Balance the family budget on
your income.
“We used to do things for posterity, now we do things for ourselves and leave
the bill to posterity.
If you can't balance the family budget, leave the bill to posterity.
What has posterity done for us, that we should do anything for it?”
Posterity did not leave the bill to us.
If you can't balance the family tree on your nose, try it on your posterior.